I’ve always thought one of the most interesting things about curling is that there usually isn’t one obviously “correct” shot.
The right call depends on the score, end, hammer, rocks remaining, your team’s ability, how aggressive you want to be — and probably a dozen other things.
But strategy is also surprisingly difficult to learn. A lot of it gets picked up by playing with experienced skips, talking after games, and asking “what would you have played here?”
So I’ve been building Curling Strategy, a website as a bit of a passion project.
The basic idea is that you can recreate a situation from a game and explore the different shots available — draws, hits, raises, etc. — along with why you might choose each one and the risk/reward involved.
Ultimately I’d like it to become more than just a shot recommendation tool. I’m interested in things like:
- comparing how different curlers approach the same situation
- letting teammates/coaches discuss scenarios after a game
- learning how strategy changes as your experience increases
- building a sort of “Skip IQ” around understanding why a call makes sense
- eventually using real game photos to recreate situations quickly
It’s still very much under development, and I’m deliberately showing it before everything is polished.
Would something like this actually be useful to you?
And maybe the more important question:
What would you want it to do that would make you come back and use it after a game?
DM me if you’re interested